The legislation would provide respite care, counseling, training and financial support to relatives who serve as full-time caregivers to severely wounded veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. It passed with 419 votes.

"I was jumping up and down saying, 'Hallelujah! They get it! They get it!'" said Schulz, who quit her teaching job six years ago to care for her son Steven, 26, after a bomb blast in Iraq left the Marine from Friendswood paralyzed on his left side, his brain injured and blind in one eye.

VA officials can give no definitive date when caregivers will begin receiving services and benefits, and veterans groups say VA regulations threaten to curtail the number of families eligible for help.

Schulz said her son's VA social worker hasn't been able to tell her when she might be able to apply for a stipend or health care.

"My initial mood was really discouraged and depressed, and now that I've taken a deep breath and kind of slept on it a while, I'm back into my fighting mode — just keep pushing, keep calling people, keep writing letters," she said. "The VA seems to respond best to that sort of pressure, which is exhausting in itself."

"Many families often suffer a personal, financial and often physical and emotional toll to provide injured veterans home health care," the senator said in a statement to the Houston Chronicle. "The VA's delay in helping alleviate some of the burden on these caregivers is unnecessary and unacceptable."

VA officials say it would have been a challenge to have all aspects of the law in force by the 270-day deadline called for in the law.

Under the Caregivers Act, VA will support non-veterans directly for the first time, meaning that services and funds will go straight to the caregiver. The unprecedented program requires the establishment of new business practices, which takes time, VA officials say.

VA last week announced a temporary plan to speed up the federal rule-making process to start the flow of direct-to-caregiver benefits by early summer.

"We understand it's a challenge every day for caregivers of the most critically injured veterans, and we're moving forward with deliberate haste to implement this complex act," said VA spokesman Drew Brookie.

Brookie pointed out VA already has hired full-time "caregiver coordinators" at 152 VA medical centers, opened a toll-free Caregiver Support Line, created a Caregiver Web site, enhanced education and training, and a basic respite benefit.

"It seems to me they're trying to do some things, but those things don't meet the expectations of the family caregivers," said Adrian Atizado, assistant national legislative director for Disabled American Veterans, a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C.

"Any further missteps, any further problems, would just seem to aggravate a very uncomfortable situation for everyone," Atizado said.

Eligibility concerns

Veterans groups, lawmakers and caregivers also have expressed concern that VA will limit eligibility to a much smaller number of caregivers than intended by Congress.

VA recently estimated that 850 caregivers will qualify, a much smaller number than the 3,500 estimated by the Congressional Budget Office.

Eligibility criteria outlined by VA indicate the veteran must be at high risk for personal safety and would require hospitalization, nursing home or other institutional care if a family member wasn't providing personal care services at home.

"That plan is actually more restrictive than the law that was written, so at this point I'm reading through this and I'm wondering will Steven even qualify for this," Schulz said. "I think he will, but it's written in very arcane VA language."

VA pledges to discuss and clarify eligibility criteria as part of the next phase of the legislation.

For now, families of veterans with serious injuries in the Houston area continue to follow the progress of the Caregivers Act very closely.

Ivonne Thompson's husband, Anthony, a Navy corpsman, was standing post on a bridge in Iraq in April 2007 when a suicide bomber detonated a dump truck loaded with 3,000 pounds of explosives. He was thrown from the bridge onto a concrete pile of rubble and suffered severe damage to his brain and spinal cord.

Best place 'is at home'

His wife, who was 20 weeks pregnant at the time, quit her job as a Spanish teacher to stay by his side.

"I could've never forgiven myself had I not been there for Anthony," she said.

Her husband can't walk, talk or hug their 3-year-old son, but Thompson refuses to put him in a nursing home.

"My husband is now 29 years old," she said. "He was 25 when he was injured. What people don't understand is that these guys aren't like an 80-year-old man. Their bodies are still thriving, their minds still need exercise and work."

The best place for these veterans is at home, she said.

"That's where these guys are going to have quality of life, around their families, but the families can't continue to do that unless they have the support they need and deserve," Thompson said.